The photo is one Col took in South Africa - not sure which trip. He had a dive trip there with Dave, in which they cage dove with Big White Sharks... and Col and I went there about 14 years ago for a friend's wedding. The wedding was in Jo'burg and then we went down to the lovely Cape to stay with Roger and Anne.
The butterfly is a Dancing Acraea - and I am trying to think of a dancing link for this blog. But nothing has turned up yet.
Which kind of reminds me of a Beachcomber headline - from way way back - the 1930s I guess:
FIFTY HORSES WEDGED UP CHIMNEY!
And underneath this alarming headline he had written: The story to fit this sensational headline has not turned up yet. (For which we can only be thankful.)
So the DANCING ACRAEA has not turned up yet, blogwise. Though it would be quite a sensational story if we saw one on our balcony I guess.
I must note that I got a card, a Swallowtail, plus letter, sent off to Kathryn, and a Clouded Yellow card and letter off to a local friend who has just broken her wrist. And I will also note that Kathryn's card crossed with mine. We were both saying we were sorry not to be able to see each other on our recent trip up North. We were both ill.
We are past our sell-by dates, and feeling it. It is a painful thing to lose old friends. Kathryn and I have known each other since our schooldays. The best friend of my expat years died just before we retired, the best friend of my Uni days died before we came back to the UK too, and my old schoolfriend and girl-next-door, Mary Jane Lee (as was), died a few years ago.
As the Bible says, at the moment "death reigns as king over us". But our rescue is so close now. And the dead will not be forgotten during the Thousand Years, when, as the Book of Daniel assures us, "many" of those asleep in the dust of the ground will wake up.
So maybe we will all meet again. There is certainly hope.
Pen kindly sent me a bio of Betty MacDonald by Anne Wellman. I am enjoying it very much. As a family we have always loved her books: The Egg and I, Anybody Can do Anything, and Onions in the Stew.
But the book in the News is Prince Harry's autobiography "Spare". It seems to be a combination of kiss and tell and attacks on his family. I am going by the headlines. I have not read the book and am not planning to. He seems to hold a real grudge about his position as "spare" (as in "the heir and the spare"), yet that way don't you get a lot of the privilege without a lot of the responsibilities? So I wish someone would encourage him to think about it that way before he burns all the bridges back to his family.
Talking of burning bridges, the tabloids are still full of Harry (he is at least being very good value for them) as Jeremy Clarkson has just apologised for a truly nasty thing he said about Meghan. It is quite a grovelling apology, as well it should be. But... the royal pair have not accepted it. And it looks like Jeremy will be cancelled from public life.
At any rate, he has made his money and had his career. And you may well feel he deserves it.
Yes, but... Harry, who did something rather worse, by turning up at a party dressed in Nazi uniform, thus brutally insulting many people, did apologise and was forgiven. And he is far from cancelled.
This will probably get me accused of a new (to me) thing called "Whataboutism" - but surely, whatever Whataboutism is all about, the gracious thing would have been to accept the apology.
And above all, every one of us, the damaged, dying children of Adam, are in need of undeserved kindness from our Creator, if we are to have back the life and perfection that our first parents so tragically lost. We need constant forgiveness from our Jehovah, and so we need to try hard to forgive each other.
Not easy, I know. Especially when it is someone we love who has been hurt. But here is the perfect definition of love, from 1 Corinthians 13:
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth."
And how different the world would be if each of us was doing our imperfect best to follow that perfect advice.
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